Mountain Patrol: Kekexili

Tibetans are a deeply spiritual and nonviolent people, but they can still kick ass, as this international co-production from Goldwyn and National Geographic (a co-distributor of the bird doc March of the Penguins) reminds. Winner of Hong Kong’s Golden Horse for Best Picture, the movie follows Ri Tai (Duo Bujie), a self-appointed game warden and his ragtag band of volunteers, across Kekexili – “the last virgin wilderness of China” – in search of poachers decimating the Tibetan antelope, whose pelts are spun into fine wool sold abroad. Kekexili is a treacherous plain four miles high, beautifully desolate but at best indifferent to humanity: Travelers risk being mired in icy mud, engulfed by dust storms and snowfalls, vanishing into pits of quicksand, or simply starving to death in a mountain pass. Yet Ri Tai and his foot soldiers, who haven’t been paid in a year and are no less hungry than the criminals they chase, pursue the hunters indefatigably, confiscating pelts and collecting fines. A reporter from Beijing (Lei Zhang) stands in for the urban viewer, tagging along on a days-long patrol; gawked at by village children, he is made to eat raw rabbit and likewise risks his life in search of Ri Tai’s story. Like Feng Xiaoning’s little-seen Gada Meilin (recently made available in the U.S. on DVD), Mountain Patrol is a scrappy little action movie about a true-life eco-warrior from China’s rebellious outlying provinces, but it splits the difference between arthouse think piece and tough-guy grit. The camera loves Ri Tai’s flowing hair and studly, weathered mien, and he’s given to walking away dramatically after an epochal statement. (“Bastards!” he sneers, in a moment of bald cliché, after the patrol discovers a field of skinned carcasses picked by vultures.) Just the same, the movie makes its points about the defilement of Tibet and the need for a unified resistance; hope lies with its people. As summer movie madness descends, viewers could do far worse than this band-of-brothers yarn, which mixes environmental awareness and spiritual mindfulness with its chase scenes through grand scenery. (At one point, the patrol doffs its pants and fords a frigid, slushy stream in boxer briefs.) Though at times a bit too conventionally hairy-chested for the Penguins crowd, Mountain Patrol is an intriguing export with crossover appeal.

July 25, 2008

The film’s light hand, appealing style, and simple exposition make it an eminently watchable inquiry into the politics of food, public health, and the reasons why corn has become an ingredient in virtually everything we eat.